Beautiful night at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia for Hoagiefest 2017, our newest festival! This year the show was top lined by Daryl Hall & John Oates and Tears For Fears---two of the biggest iconic acts of the 80s. And since I was parked in a 2 hour parking zone, I wasn't able to stay for all of Hall & Oates but was finally able to catch a FULL SHOW of Tears For Fears after glimpsing them through a fence at the outdoor Mann Music Center back in June 1990 for a partial show. And I was almost as far away this time as the South Stage area was pretty packed and I could kinda see the big screens from the angle I was standing...back by a side fence.

Indeed, others soon came back to join me, asking first if I minded if they stood in front of me. It was pretty polite of them to ask and I didn't mind since they weren't giants who would be blocking our view. They had been closer to the stage but kept getting hit by lawn chairs that people were carrying. I was glad I hadn't bothered to get any closer after hearing this. The guy turned out to be pretty interesting as he told me his tales of bartending in this area in the clubs on Delaware Ave back in the 90s, many of which I'd been to too back then. And he'd seen Soundgarden and alot of other now iconic acts at J.C. Dobbs on South Street back then. Another girl standing nearby with her boyfriend was all excited to be seeing Hall & Oates for the first time. And she looked like she would've been born about the time they were hitting the peak of their popularity. Another girl a little closer to my age was amazed that all the twenty-somethings she was meeting knew all about Tears For Fears and Hall & Oates and knew all the words to the songs as well.

First song outta the gate was their very first hit in the US, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", and I had fond memories of the spring of 1985 and my co-worker, Brooke Amos, and I heading out on our lunch break and he saying how much he liked the song as it played on the radio. Of course "Sowing the Seeds of Love" got aired as well as my fave from that same album, "Advice For the Young at Heart" and they even threw in "Creep" from Radiohead. Another girl near me was a bit confused until I told her, "No, your memory's not failing you. It is 'Creep' by Radiohead." I was also happy to hear "Break it Down Again" from their 1993 album Elemental and the two set closers, "Head Over Heals" and "Shout", took me back again to the summer of 1985 and my friend Paul Gamble asking me what album (Songs From the Big Chair) they came from-----back when you needed an in-the-know friend like me to tell you in those pre-internet days. Then he and his fiance, Sandra, would argue about what THEIR song was. She wanted "Crazy For You" by Madonna where he was insisting on "Head Over Heels". I thought BOTH were very good candidates, actually.

Great set by the Tears and I like the current guys (and gal) they have in the group. Very competent. And though I was able to get more of a closer look at the show (and Hall & Oates as well) later on Youtube, I was happy to have been there. Nothing like hearing your favorite music live outdoors on a beautiful summer night!

1. Everybody Wants to Rule the World2. Secret World3. Sowing the Seeds of Love4. Advice For the Young at Heart5. Everybody Loves a Happy Ending6. Change7. Mad World8. Memories Fade9. Creep10. Pale Shelter11. Break it Down Again12. Head Over HeelsEncore13. Shout